About Gelston's

The name "Samuel Gelston" has come to represent excellence and originality. Every year since 1830, they have been aging, blending, and bottling the finest Irish whiskeys and always experimenting with new and exciting cask finishes. Their whiskey is at the cutting edge of innovation and experimentation, spanning from young malts and single pot stills to a 28-year-old single malt, with everything from sherry cask to rum cask to Pinot cask finishes. This has always been and always will be their guiding principle: honor, honesty, and integrity.

Samuel Gelston, a wealthy wine and whiskey merchant in Belfast, established Gelston's Old Irish Whiskey in 1830. In the wake of Samuel's death in late 1869, Henry James Neill (Harry) bought the company and expanded it significantly in Ireland and beyond.
In 1851, Harry had left Belfast for the Australian Gold Rush. Instead of looking for gold, he started a successful provisioning business for miners and their families in Australia, and he recruited his younger brothers to help him expand the business. He was able to sell his part at a profit and return to Ireland in 1862.

In 1869, Harry began working on rebuilding the Gelston's company. He did so by blending and selling whiskey casks in Ireland, and he was also instrumental in starting to export to Australia and New Zealand, primarily into the businesses that his brothers had carried on and set up. One of these was Neill & Co., based in Dunedin and run by his brother Percival, which was once the largest spirits business in New Zealand.

After Harry's death in 1891, the company was taken over by another H.J. Neill. Five generations later, the Neill family still owns the Samuel Gelston's brand, which is once again gaining popularity around the world.